Greed – That which Blinds Us All
Another day had passed, and the third-in-command still could not find any leads on the recent disappearance of the young men and women in Shizume City. His commanding officer had approached him the night before to speak to him regarding the cases, asking him to investigate for any clues. But without any significant leads, Fushimi felt like he was looking for a needle in a haystack.
As he threw himself against the hard stone walls of one of Shizume City's top French restaurants, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Tired and frustrated, the Blue clansman was ready to return back to Scepter 4's headquarters empty-handed again.
Before he could do so, he began to hear two middle-aged men speaking by one of the balcony tables near the Blue clansman.
"Do you plan to go to this week's gathering? I heard that they are going to be auctioning off their newest selection of merchandise. It's supposed to be a good selection this time around."
"Already another auction? Didn't they just do one like three weeks ago?"
"Yeah, apparently this month they've had an increase in demand for merchandise. I don't know if it's due to new members joining, or that people have been requesting multiple orders. As long as they're top quality though, I don't really care."
"I do hope so. The merchandise I bought a half-year ago broke too quickly, so I've needed a replacement for some time now."
"Haha, that's what you get for picking a young female. The males tend to be sturdier and last longer."
"I guess I'll have to look into that then, though it is a pain to have to travel and carry the merchandise without getting caught."
"You know you could just pay for them to transport it for you. You'll never have any trouble then."
"But they charge another five thousand American dollars to use their escort services. The girl cost me fourteen thousand as it is.
"Haha, yeah I guess you're right. Well, better get your monies worth this time around."
"Alright, see you at Paradise Lost t—"
"SHHHH, YOU IDIOT! We're not supposed to say that name ever out in public, remember? That's a sin punishable by death. Just call it Garden of Eden."
"Oh, damn you're right. Okay, well no one really seems to be around, so let's just go home."
As the two men left the restaurant and drove off in a taxi, Saruhiko furrowed his brow and began to think hard. "Paradise Lost? Garden of Eden? What the hell is that…"
The two men were serious about keeping whatever it was a secret. He would also need to find out what this 'merchandise' was as well. Whatever it was, the blue-haired man would find out one way or another. Saruhiko needed access to his computer at the headquarters first. The Blue clansman wasted no time heading back to Scepter 4.
As Saruhiko gazed at the computer screen, his daft fingers moved gracefully over the keyboard. He had set up dozens of search engines that would simultaneously scan various databases. Because the names 'Paradise Lost' and 'Garden of Eden' were fairly common titles, the blue-eyed man focused in on the names in relevance to Shizume City itself.
One particular link peaked the Blue clansman's interest. "Garden of Eden, A Society for High Society…what kind of garbage is this?"
His eyes began scan the text, scrolling down to read the various reports about it. Garden of Eden was a dinner and socializing club exclusively for those who had been invited. Only the wealthiest and powerful members of society were invited to the club. To put it in plain language: it was a place where rich snobs could get away from the rabble and socialize with people of their kind.
Fushimi clicked his tongue as he continued on to search for 'Paradise Lost.' The Scepter 4 officer was surprised that not a single search result appeared for it. It was strange. The Blue clansman knew for sure that he had heard those words come from that one man's mouth.
If such a place existed in Shizume City, there would be some sort of paper trail or bit of information somewhere…unless someone high enough in society had the power to erase its existence. Fushimi glanced at the clock. It was eleven PM. If he arrived there by midnight, he would have enough time to sneak into Garden of Eden before the heavy security systems would be enabled. He then would hide until everyone left, and then he would begin his investigation and search from there.
The blue-eyed man paused and glanced over at his superior's desk. It would probably be a good idea to inform his captain about his plan of action, but this is Fushimi Saruhiko. He was a lone wolf that prefers working solo than have to deal with others.
As he grabbed his saber and put on his uniform jacket, the Blue clansman quickly dashed out the door. He wanted to quickly solve this troublesome case so he could return to spending his nights following his beloved instead.
It was 11:45PM when he arrived at the large marbled-stone building in the most affluent area of Shizume City. There stood Corinthian pillars lining the front side with intricate designs crafted all throughout the top. Beautiful streams of Ivy were wrapped around the columns, and the front entrance was decorated with breathtaking greenery. What was even more amazing was the social club's interior design. Even the Egyptian kings sat in less luxury in comparison to the exquisite sculptures and painted scenery within. The room truly looked as if it were God's garden. The walls were painted with fields of green. Hundreds of different flowers decorated all edges and areas of the dining room. Furniture had golden frames and Agarwood interiors. What was even more lavishing was the actual garden in the back of the building. Those members who wanted to take an evening stroll could do so in the private botanical paradise.
Despite its aesthetically appealing appearance, Fushimi could care less about any of this. It just would be another worthless place filled with even more worthless people. Money didn't matter to Saruhiko. He wasn't a man who would ever spend his wealth accruing designer clothing, expensive jewelry, and pointless trinkets. There was only one thing that mattered in his life and that would never change.
The Blue clansman eyed the front entrance. There were two brawny guards standing in front of the door. There were also various security cameras to surveillance the area. The windows probably all had sensor alarms if someone were to touch and open them. This may be impossible for the average law enforcer to break into, but to the blue-eyed man, this was mere child's play.
Opening up his PDA, he expanded the window and loaded open his hacking program. After typing in a series of commands, Saruhiko aimed his PDA at the video cameras first. With a press of the button, the surveillance system was quickly overtaken by Fushimi's hacking code. Instead of showing the real view, the camera was now set on a five minute loops of the events that it recorded earlier.
The Blue quickly vaulted over the gate fence surrounding the outside of the building and landed softly on the grass beneath his boots. His next move was to disable the sensor alarms around the building. Once again the blue-haired man tuned his program with the security system, disabling any alarms set. Before the Scepter 4 officer climbed in through the window, he began to hear a lot of chatter coming from behind some of the bushes on the back side of the building. It appeared that a lot of people were walking through the garden. However it was strange. The voices began to disappear, yet none of the people came back into the building. They simply seemed to have vanished into thin air.
Saruhiko decided to investigate the garden first. However, the Blue clansman was unaware that the security system for the garden was on a completely different network than the actual building itself.
"Hiroshi, who is that young man hiding behind the statue on camera three?" Inoue asked as he sat and stared at the image before him.
"It appears to be a member of Shizume City's enforcement department, Scepter 4, sir."
Wrinkles appeared on the black-eyed man's forehead as he began to think hard. "Scepter 4 you say? I wonder why those government dogs are sniffing around here. How come we weren't notified that they were planning on investigating us? Did we lose our mole in the Prime Minister's administration office?"
"No sir. We were informed that the Prime Minister had briefly spoken to the captain of Scepter 4 a few days ago, but no official plan of action or status change had been reported. It could be that this man is acting alone without his superior knowing."
A smile appeared on the raven-haired man's lips. "That would work out in our favor then. Hiroshi, I want you to send Oniyuri to retrieve him for me. Make sure she puts the cuffs on and calibrates it. We wouldn't want him to squirm about and make noise…at least not while he's above ground."
"Yes sir, it shall be done at once."
Without making a sound, Saruhiko glided from one hiding spot to the next, as he went further into the garden. It was becoming darker and harder to see. The Blue clansman could start hearing the sound of water flowing. After he passed through all the brush, he saw a large water fountain before him. On top of the fountain appeared to be a sculpture of a giant apple tree. The engraving on the stone pedestal that it sat upon said, 'The Tree of Knowledge.'
This area was about where he had stopped hearing the people speak. Fushimi knew that he needed to begin his search around the fountain first. Maybe there was some sort of trap door or exit that he had missed. However, as the man leaned closer towards the water, he felt as if someone was watching him. The man quickly spun around, but there was no one in sight. "Am I just being paranoid?" the blue-haired man muttered to himself. The Blue clansman had his hand on his sword's handle just in case. As he turned back towards the fountain, the blue-haired man felt something wrap around his neck.
His body became tense in panic as he saw two small, feminine hands snapping some sort of necklace or device onto his neck. Fushimi rapidly spun around, but before he could scream out, he felt a needle prick into his skin. The last thing that the blue-eyed man could see was long, curly silver hair and a pair of dead-looking eyes staring at him as he blacked out.